The present invention relates to a connector for ribbon cable, and particularly to improved means for aligning terminals in the housing.
Ribbon cable provides a convenient means for handling multiple conductors, and is typically manufactured with conductors on 0.050 inch centerline spacing in a common jacket of insulation. Accordingly, specialized connectors having insulation displacing terminals with slotted plates on 0.050 inch centerline spacing have been developed. Typically, such connectors have two rows of terminals spaced on 0.100 inch centers, the slotted plates in each row being offset from the slotted plates in the other row so that each row of terminals terminates alternate conductors in the cable. An early connector of this type, which is sold by AMP Incorporated under the trademark AMP-LATCH, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,055.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,004 discloses an electrical connector of the type comprising an insulative housing having a mating end, a cable receiving end, and a plurality of terminal passages extending therebetween, the passages being of generally square cross section. The connector further comprises a plurality of stamped and formed terminals received in respective passages, each terminal having a body portion of generally C-shaped cross-section, the body portion comprising a substantially planar first plate extending to a coplanar slotted plate portion.
Terminals as described above generally depend on contact between the three plates of the C-shaped body portion and respective adjacent walls of the passage to angularly position the terminals in the housing. A detent may be stamped in one or more walls to provide an interference fit for retention. For such small terminals (about 0.070 inch square in the body portion), it is extremely difficult to control the formed dimensions relative to the terminal size. Since stamped dimensions are relatively easy to control, an oversized formed dimension means that another dimension formed within the same stamped dimension will be undersized. Most notably, a plate of oversized width means that one or two of the other plates will be undersized.
This in turn affects the angular orientation of the terminals in respective passages, and likewise the centerline spacing of the slotted plate portions. Considering also the tolerances in spacing of conductors in the ribbon cable, damage or even severing of one or more such conductors is possible.